Thing is, ask any fan in the country about their club's ownership and very few will be really happy - even those at clubs with mega rich owners spending crazy money are, in the main, not totally comfortable with it. Ours gets a lot of attention because he's a high profile retailer but other than him I'd struggle to name many, apart from the Glazers, Short and Gibson. Even the nutters at Hull, Cardiff and QPR's names escape me despite all the press they get. Our ownership is little more than symptomatic of what English football has become in the 21st century. We're certainly not unique.
The manager issue is different. They do vary enormously.
However for Saturday's protest to have failed so miserably, despite a year of poor results, last week's 4-0 hammering and being 2-0 down at home raises a lot of questions about how they went about it. It was a moment when they had everything going for them.
My feeling is that Newcastle fans in the main are just sick of gimmicky protests and the embarrassment they cause. We've had poorly attended marches, mock funerals, open top buses, billboards etc. We've waved flags, banners etc and had more splinter protest groups than most could remember. It seems to achieve little more than bringing a few extra press vultures up from London for a weekend hoping to pile more ridicule on us.
Backslapping each other about a well organised protest - which it obviously wasn't - and to have those who did want protest calling the 48,500 or so who didn't, "sheep", "c***s", "knackers" "idiots" or whatever is not really the way forward. Or maybe it is in their eyes ?
What is needed is a sane, rational, non-gimmicky agenda which engages the majority of match attending supporters and the city in general.
That or a practical, business savvy consortium like the original Magpie Group who would be taken seriously.
What was irrational about the sackpardew protest?
